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Managing Director NATO DIANA, NATO DIANA
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About DIANA
Operating out of offices in Europe and in North America, DIANA’s mission is to accelerate the development and adoption of dual-use technological solutions to critical transatlantic challenges in defence and security, bringing together innovators and operational end users from across the Alliance to foster a transatlantic ecosystem. DIANA is a subsidiary body created within the framework of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. It is comprised of an Allied Board of Directors, providing strategic governance and oversight, and a management team, the DIANA Executive (DX), comprising approximately 90 staffs (civilian and military).
The Managing Director leads the DX, with the support of a Senior Leadership Team. The DX establishes challenge programmes for dual-use innovators, in line with Allied-approved, biennial Strategic Guidance and Direction, to accomplish this mission with the support of its affiliated network of accelerator sites and test centres. It also leverages its constituent elements such as the Rapid Adoption Service and the Trusted Capital Database to further enable innovator solution development and adoption.
DIANA is critical to NATO's overall innovation efforts. Established in 2022, the organisation completed its three years start-up phase in advance of the NATO Summit in The Hague in June 2025. DIANA is now in the third year of executing its challenge and accelerator programmes, with 150 innovators in its most recent cohort. The organisation is currently in the process of adjusting and scaling its operations to be able to develop and launch a set of differentiated programmatic pathways for innovators to meet the balance of needs articulated by NATO Allies.
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Role of the Managing Director
The Managing Director is the Head of the DIANA Executive, reporting directly to the Board of Directors of DIANA. The Managing Director leads the DX, in accordance with the DIANA founding Charter, as a key vehicle to promote the development and adoption of dual-use innovations that enhance Alliance defence and security. This includes continual development and refinement of DX policies and operating procedures that govern internal operations and programmatic deliverables.
In this context, the Managing Director works directly with Allied Nations, NATO’s innovation bodies, national governments, the private sector, academia and other partners to advance DIANA’s mission.
The Managing Director also leads a senior leadership team stationed across three locations: London UK, Tallinn ES, and Halifax CA and maintains direct responsibility for DIANA’s operations and people management, including talent attraction, recruitment and development, as well as performance management.
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The Managing Director also oversees the organisation’s overall corporate planning, conducting annual reviews and incorporating lessons learned in adapting the organisation. The Managing Director is responsible for preparing annual budgets for DIANA Finance Committee review and final Board approval as well as for “Strategic Direction” for submission to the Board of Directors, proposing DIANA’s high-level objectives based on critical challenges facing operational end users as well as longer-term priorities that fit within the Alliance’s political and military objectives, with particular focus on DIANA’s contributions to NATO’s industry and innovation agenda and NATO’s Rapid Adoption Action Plan.
Key Challenges
Key challenges facing the successful candidate for this post will include:
- Further developing DIANA’s ability to enable and drive defence and military adoption of innovator solutions;
- Effectively prioritising both quality of innovation and capacity building and sustainment across Alliance innovation ecosystems;
- Leading and managing an organisation to meet diverse stakeholder needs while sustaining agility, flexibility and the ability to scale.
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